Monday, March 15, 2010

"Enter the Ninja" just came out a month ago and it already has over two million views on YouTube. Because of the popularity of the video, they just signed with Interscope and they are releasing a full length album. Also, Neil Blomkamp, the director of last year's South African action film hit "District 9," will be directing their new video. That is a pretty impressive feat for a rap group that no one has ever heard of. This video has turned some working class Afrikaners with prison tattoos and bad haircuts into stars.

The initial feeling I got from the video is that this is a joke, but a joke it is not. The head of rap ensemble, Ninja, is serious about his music. Ninja lives in a poor neighborhood in South Africa with his mom, next door to the "butterfly" in the video, Yo-Landi Vi$$er (she lives with her grandmother). They may have some odd, comical moments in the video and the song, but they are serious about their music.

A couple factors go into making this video successful. Ninja is a really skilled rapper. Not only is he quick and smooth, there are hints of brilliance in his lyrics. Although there is a bit of glitz and production, there is also a raw, unpretentious, unashamed layer that is really endearing. It straddles the area between off-putting and appealing.

Some of the strangeness comes in part from director David Lynch, the king of weird. Ninja says in an interview with boingboing.net that Twin Peaks changed his life:

I used to smoke a lot of weed," Ninja says. "Then I got my hands on a David Lynch Twin Peaks box set, and I watched the whole thing in one sitting, and it blew my mind. Special Agent Dale Cooper said something about pot being bad for you, and that convinced me that maybe I shouldn't smoke pot anymore. All of this now might be a little harder to take if I were.

In the interview, Ninja also indicates that he had meeting with David Lynch after the interview. Hopefully he wants to direct a video.